Blog #1 Post

Blog #1

prompt 2. 

Our peers often influence expectations that we make for ourselves. In Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone Harry Potter is expected to do great things. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry Potter is expected to have opened the Chamber of Secrets. In both of these instances people have developed ideas about Harry Potter because of things he has done in the past.

In Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, Harry Potter is expected to do great things. When Harry was just a baby he survived an attack by Voldemort, in which his parents, who were great wizards, were murdered; from this point on Harry became “The Boy Who Lived”. This event in its self created an expectation from the Wizarding World that Harry Potter was to be a great wizard; however, when Harry finds out that he is not only a wizard, but also a famous wizard; he cannot believe that he should be revered and doubts that he will ever meet the expectations that everyone has of him. Once Harry enters Hogwarts to begin his wizarding education, he soon is met with challenges from the dark arts. At once Harry shows his bravery and takes on the Challenge of protecting the Philosopher’s Stone with just the help of Ron and Hermione. To me this says that he does somewhat believe that he can be as great as what people expect him to be. Once he does defeat Quirrell and Voldemort, I believe that Harry gains confidence in him self, and feels that he has met some of the expectations that people have had for him all along.

In Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets, the general consensus about Harry changes drastically. People seem to have forgotten about “The Boy Who Lived”, and are now focused on the mystery of how he survived. This in turn, leads to people becoming afraid of him. As we know, many people are afraid of the unknown and up to this point the reason Harry survived Voldemort’s attack is unknown, thus when people start being petrified at the hands of the heir of Slytherin, fingers are pointed at Harry. These accusations stem from the unknown, Harry being a parseltongue, and Harry proving to have been a talented wizard in his first year at Hogwarts. Harry; however, suspects Draco Malfoy to be behind that attacks, because of his hatred of mudbloods, and half-bloods. At last, Harry, Hermione, and Ron take actions into their own hands, having created this self-expectation of being able to stop any bad that happens at Hogwarts. Once in the Chamber of Secrets, Harry learns that Ginny, a person that no one would expect to cause such trouble, opened the Chamber of Secrets. After defeating Voldemort once again in the Chamber of Secrets, Harry, Ron and Hermione have met their personal expectations, whether realized or not. At this the school revokes its fear of Harry and sees him once again as untainted.

In both of these books, expectations are created and met. I think that it is important to look at the expectations that were created and not met as well. For example, Draco Malfoy being accused by Harry of opening the Chamber of Secrets. Although, Draco was happy about the Chamber of Secrets being opened, I believe that it was important that Harry’s expectation of Malfoy was not met because Harry is able to realize that Malfoy would not be capable of such atrocity, which can be seen as somewhat of a foreshadowing of future events involving Draco Malfoy’s actions and expectations of him in the Dark Arts. To summarize, it is important for a character to not meet and expectation, because it makes them more human, and a more well rounded character.